Since that time, numerous articles have surfaced in a VERY short time showing how 'wonderful' hospital birth is, and more than that, highly managed hospital births. Read on, then come on back here.
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Some things that tick me off about this:
- Cesareans vs vaginal and breast vs. bottle are not NEARLY in the same realm. Yes, both have health benefits one way or the other, but one is MAJOR SURGERY.
- Misinformation - women are given SOME of the risks of Cs, but not all. They are not given the incidences of these risks either. I hear so often of women being scared into making Cesarean's elective procedures instead of emergent ones.
- Did you notice that the mom in this article said she felt "defensive" about choosing a cesarean? Did she ever stop to think about the REAL reason why she felt that way? Take responsibility for your own emotions and actions woman. She shouldn't be feeling defensive or ashamed about her birth unless there was a reason - and not a victim-reason either.
- "Something that people might not immediately think of is how this is going to cost the rest of us.....c-sections are very expensive, the more than women demand elective c-sections the more likely insurance companies will start to raise their rates for maternity coverage......this is simply unfair for the rest of us who believe in natural child birth to have to contribute financially to insurance premiums because some women are "too posh to push"... - Doula friend in Cali
- Articles like this give vaginal birth a bad rap. They fail to tell the REASONS for most vaginal birth risks. Most of the damage done in vaginal birth is due to pushing position, directed pushing, forceps, vacuum, episiotomy, etc....the way the birth is MANAGED... NOT vaginal birth in and of itself.
"There is an admiration of women who are able to do a vaginal birth without pain medications, then breast-feed, and do everything else perfectly," she says. "So I didn't go around advertising that I had chosen to have a C-section."If she sees vaginal birth as part of the "perfect" way to birth, no wonder she didn't try for it... because trying and failing meant failing. No weight is given to the process, the attempt even... Fear. It permeates and mitigates reactions that and choices that are not wise. Because any choice made out of fear (fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of anything) is made for the WRONG reasons.
Grrr...
On the heels of that one, let's take a look at another Time's article. This time, I will let you be the one to comment on it before I add my $2.01
5 comments:
WHAT?!?!?!?!? I can't believe the article and it's oh so "accurate" description of birth. . . I love how it mentions what are maternal death rate is but makes no mention of how we compare to other countries who have better outcomes that we do just because they aren't turning birth into a cesarean market!!!!!!!!!!
deidre
This is my favorite quote: "During that time, she is wracked by contractions — a euphemism that doesn't even come close to conveying the violent spasms that take hold when the body reflexively tries to squeeze a baby through a narrow vaginal opening. The forces involved are such that when the baby's head emerges, it can do so with sufficient pressure to rip the mother's perineum and leave grind marks on pubic bone. In many ways, the act of giving birth resembles a medical emergency — in fact, if no medical intervention of any kind were made, up to 1 in 67 women would die in labor."
Oh, contractions are "violent"? Is this with or without pitocin? And although the whole quote is lovely [sarcasm!!!], my favorite part is that 1/67 women would die in labor. Which must be why there are so many maternal deaths at home births? And the justification for that mortality quote is??? Research, people, research! If 1/67 women would die w/o medical intervention, that works out to nearly 1500/100,000. This happens in parts of Africa, but not in developed countries. And this happens primarily due to an underlying unhealthy state or childhood diseases such as rickets, NOT because of C-sections, pitocin, epidurals, stirrups, and EFMs.
Kathy
Phew, that article was a piece of work...oh, my goodness, don't get me started!! I echo Kathy's comments about the section she quoted. I was especially held in disbelief at how the experience of natural birth is as traumatic to some women as being a car accident or being sexually assaulted. Wow, after reading an article like this one, no wonder women are scared to death to give birth!
Thanks, Nicole, for being one of many working to turn around the childbirth community in this country! Please continue to pray for me in work, too. You are such an encouragement!
Phew, that article was a piece of work...oh, my goodness, don't get me started!! I echo Kathy's comments about the section she quoted. I was especially held in disbelief at how the experience of natural birth is as traumatic to some women as being a car accident or being sexually assaulted. Wow, after reading an article like this one, no wonder women are scared to death to give birth!
Thanks, Nicole, for being one of many working to turn around the childbirth community in this country! Please continue to pray for me in work, too. You are such an encouragement!
From the TIMES article...
"While that may be true for some, for most women natural childbirth is one of the most violent physical traumas they will ever experience, bar a serious accident or grievous assault."
WHAT???!!!
UGH* This is so sad. This really is why the vast majority of women I meet are scared to death to give birth.
What's amazing to me is that this is a man {Liam Fitzpatrick} giving an account of how horrifically "violent" childirth is. I would just love to meet him so I could ask him how many children he's birthed in his life.
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